Legacy of Celestial Being
by Ghost rider 1-3
Summary: The reclusive Setsuna F. Seiei, also an innovator, once believed his sole purpose was to save worlds, and nothing else. But when the independent peacekeeping group known as Celestial Being slowly uncovers the mystery behind the aliens called the ELS, he slowly learns the human side of him...from someone he never expected.
1. Chapter 1: Setsuna F Seiei

Author note: This story is meant to be a crossover between Gundam 00 and Borderlands. When I wrote this story I was deliberately completely ignorant to the epilogue of Awakening of the Trailblazer since a lot of the details in it will contradict with this story(at least from what I know). Also disclaimer as always: I do not own Gundam 00, I do not own Borderlands, and I do not own any of the songs mentioned in the story.

* * *

Setsuna F. Seiei

CBS-74 Ptolemaios

Out in the deep and silent space, out within the asteroid field near the space station Lagrange 2, a single prototype blue mobile suit flew past the space rocks and stardust while continuously spraying out green particles from its back. On its left arm was a GN shield with its six advanced GN bits properly stored in it, with the suit carried a retractable sword on its right, as the pilot sitting wearily inside the cockpit had preferred.

The mobile suit bound for the Celestial Being warship Ptolemaios II was no other than the 00 QanT, the most advanced mech humanity could possibly offer. Inside was the first purebred Innovator of all mankind, the man with few words commonly known as Setsuna F. Seiei. His head shifted left and right, struggling not to suddenly black out after staying awake for solid week because of his meeting with the ELS, the aliens which originally were his, and his comrades', worst enemy.

He was too drained to think about anything the ELS shared with him at all. Though even the QanT itself was yelling at him to get some sleep, he knew better than any mechanic or Meister that suit was not fitted with auto-pilot. A part of him wished he was still using the double O, as he could just request Saji or Haro to take over control and let his body rest without worries. But unfortunately for him he lost it in the fight against his new alien pals, and he concluded that both his deteriorating skills due to a lack of practice and the fact that 00's drives were replaced with condensers, making its performance drop a notch.

He made his way to the battleship concealed within the asteroid field and carefully landed the state-of-the-art Gundam unit in Ptolemy's catapult, but not without receiving an alert hail from Milenia Vashti, the ship's chief CIC operator after the late Anew Returner was revealed to be an Innovator, a dreadful hostile at that time being.

"Approaching mobile suit, please state your affiliation and current objective." She requested plainly.

"This is 00 QanT, Setsuna. F. Seiei. Requesting for permission to land on Ptolemaios." He answered in an equally plain tone.

"Great! Just checking if it was you. Opening hatch 2." Milenia was all too quick to switch to her usual cheerful voice as she hit the controls on her touchscreen, followed by a muted screech coming from in front of her. Moments later the suit vanished into the hatch, and was quickly caught by one of the hangar's manipulator arms hanging above the bright ceiling.

Once Setsuna stabilised his prized Gundam he instantly switched off both GN drives with the master switch next to his right arm, the red button with warning labels around it to be precise. The chief mechanic Ian Vashti exchanged positions with him as soon as the hatch popped open, but not without giving him a proper greeting considering the young innovator was gone for a whole week without contacting anyone on the Ptolemy at all.

Setsuna made to the bridge and unlocked the door to it. A hiss from the hydraulics played above him, and he hopped into the considerably compact bridge where Lasse Aeon and Milenia were waiting in their seats, along with a couple of Haro assistant bots floating near the terminal opposite to Milenia's seat.

He scanned the bridge as he noticed there were only two humans in front of him, two less than normal numbers. "Where's Feldt?" Surprisingly he refrained from asking about anyone else. But with the ship's previous captain Sumeragi Lee Noriega mostly likely to be drunk and passed out in her own cabin with bottles of beer drifting around, the Vashtis in the hangar busy maintaining his Gundam, and Marie Parfacy being more of a pilot than a bridge crew, there really wasn't any point to ask for them.

"Feldt's gone with Marie and Allelujah. She wouldn't tell me why but from what Marie passed to us, it's not a very safe job." Lasse explained.

Yet Setsuna's gaze only grew even more threatening, and the newly promoted captain was eventually broken down by his eyes and decided to spill the beans. "Alright! For goodness sake, she's trying to be a Meister." He shouted. "That's why Linda isn't here as well." Lasse spared the rest of the details, confident that Setsuna the Innovator was smart enough to put two and two together.

"By the way, Sumeragi-san has retired. So she is right about the last mission thing after all...at least for her." Lasse continued, but Setsuna's boundless mind was filled with a ton of unanswered questions, mostly about Feldt Grace becoming a Gundam Meister herself. He certainly had no doubts about whether she can uphold the values of being in such a vital position, what truly concerned him was her motivation.

He stood in his position motionless for moments, his drowsiness completely wiped out and his attention fully restored. But before he could say another word, he was caught off guard by Lasse's sudden verbal assault. "Do you miss her or something?" He joked.

"I need to speak to Ian-san, right now." The next thing the bridge crew knew, he bolted out the door, and back towards the hangar. A few tight turns and a few automatic doors was all that took to get Setsuna to where he came in from. Waiting inside the cockpit of the 00 QanT was Ian, with a wrench slipped in his trousers. "I'm not letting you go out there, for any reason." He demanded instinctively upon hearing the sound of Setsuna stepping onto the E-carbon armour shielding the interior of the mobile suit.

"Why did Feldt want to be a Gundam Meister?" Setsuna questioned. As emotionless as he seems, he wasn't fooling anyone. Ian could already tell he wasn't curious just by his facial expression he never knew that gave him away.

"You have to respect her decision." Ian simply replied, hoping Setsuna would knock it off and do what he was supposed to do; report his findings about the ELS to Veda, or rather, Tieria Erde, the Innovade now acting as a software inside the complex artificial intelligence of Veda.

Setsuna only grew more furious when his demand was rejected. "And I do. But I…"

"You're tired. You need a sleep. End of story." Ian eventually had to shove him out of the QanT's cockpit, leaving Setsuna with no other option but to head for a Veda terminal on board the ship. He floated and drifted through the hallways and past Lyle and Lasse's cabin, and into a dark room that only glowed in an electric blue.

"Tieria." He said. "Tieria Erde!"

Soon enough a holo image in a pink and untucked shirt and grey trousers appeared before him. Any man or woman would take that figure as a girl, save for the crew of the Ptolemaios who knew he only looked like a girl because he kept his hair.

"Good to see you, Setsuna F. Seiei." He greeted.

"Same here. About the ELS, their home world is dying, and they're desperately seeking a new place to live in." Setsuna explained briefly as he clipped his helmet to his flight vest that resembled a chest armour to keep his hands free, as he always preferred.

"Nothing more than that?" Asked Tieria.

"And that they live on some purple crystal called 'Eridium'. Just like the blood that keeps us alive." He replied. "Or electric, in your case."

Little did Tieria know Setsuna was in face multitasking in his head. He would've known through his quantum brainwaves, if he hadn't had his machine assimilated by the ELS sometime ago. "That's all." He finished, wanting to leave the room and stare at the stars outside the ship aimlessly so he could tidy up his mind now swarmed with a hundred thoughts that didn't relate to each other.

"You don't always have to be that strict. Now that I'm in Veda, I can be a part-time psychologist as well if you ever need some advice." Tieria reminded, surprisingly casual.

"I'll keep that in mind." Setsuna simply finished, and left the room after Tieria's image faded behind him. He flew past Lyle Dylandy who happened to wake up from his nap, and tried his best to ignore him as he headed for the side section of the Ptolemy where the view of the stars looked the best.

He rested his head on his palms and leaned on the wall, gazing at the space filled with flashing lights and nebulas in the distance. He had already came up with a hundred more excuses shall he ever be bombarded with questions that involves Feldt, just to hide his true reason he was reluctant to see her become a Meister. Straight forward for any normal person, but rather uncomfortable for an Innovator like him.

 _I don't want her to die. No, I really don't want her to die._


	2. Chapter 2: One With The Angels

One with the Angels

Lagrange 4

Among the endless line of shipwreck and asteroids floating in a violet nebula lay the Celestial Being training station of Lagrange 4, now blended in with the space rocks by its hangar doors coated with the same ore as the asteroids outside. Beyond that door was an array of bright lights that led to the docking bay, as well as a transformable mobile suit in orange stripes that belonged to no other than Allelujah Haptism, an ex-super soldier created by the now dissolved Human Reform League who serves Celestial Being as a Gundam Meister. He himself was hanging out with his girlfriend Marie Parfacy, while the Meister candidate Feldt Grace sat in its cockpit, punching buttons and tilting her twin joysticks as more and more hostile mobile suits approached on the screen.

The first attacker, a GN-X 1, got too close and forced Feldt to destroy it with her beam saber. Despite Celestial Being's rapid advancement in mobile suit technology, Feldt was rolling with Gundam Nadleeh, a mobile suit without any special features and relied purely on standard issued weapons. It was for Veda to evaluate her combat style, and develop a suit that fits her the most.

She dropped her sabre and raised her GN rifle upon seeing another pair of GN-Xs hovering off her left flank. She missed a couple of shots when she obliterated the first one and went for the second, and gave the computer system an opportunity to close in and attack her with its GN saber powered by its Tau drive, a cheap replica of Celestial Being's prized GN drives.

Feldt was quick enough to pull off a backflip with Nadleeh's drive, while dragging her rifle with her. She reached for her dropped saber with her free hand, and bent her left arm to block the incoming attack from her side. She thrusted her right arm forward and into the gut of the GN-X, still holding her GN rifle, and finished off the grey mobile suit with several brutal shots, igniting its Tau drive.

She panted heavily and removed her white helmet, allowing her strands of pink hair let loose. They were growing again, and soon enough she would have to ask Ian to cut them for her. The cockpit hatch of the Harute II hissed open, and waiting outside was Linda Vashti, wife of Ian and currently supervising Feldt along with Tieria. She had an orange Haro unit in her hand, which also acts as a means to communicate with Tieria without going into the dark room on board the Ptolemy.

"You broke your high score again." Linda complimented as she scrolled through Feldt's combat statistics. 10648, about 600 more than her last score a few hours ago.

"Next time you'll be facing Aheads. Don't get too full of yourself." Tieria commented from the Haro. The two decided it was time to stay away from the Harute II for a while, and went for the construction bay only around the corner from the hangar. "I'm not gonna be satisfied until I beat Setsuna's." Feldt replied eagerly.

The sight of a mobile suit frame with an armoured chassis and legs stood in front of the two ladies as they entered the construction bay. Almost instantly Feldt came across a feature on the frame she had never seen on any other Gundam units. "What's with the legs?" She pointed at the lightly armoured legs with stripes of red on it. Unlike most other mobile suits its legs had three joints, which almost resembled a kid's common drawing of a thunderbolt.

"It's a new transforming mechanism the engineers wanted to try out. When folded, it will look nothing more than a pair of propulsion units." Linda answered. "And before you try anything, that's Marie's. So don't think you're setting foot in your own Gundam anytime soon." She continued.

"What are you going to call it?" Feldt asked curiously, while scanning the rest of the unfinished frame of Marie's new mobile suit, looking badass as every Gundam does despite being incomplete.

"Huh? Gundam Ahriman. Named after an angel as always."

Back outside the silent asteroid came a pack of automated yellow mobile suits soaring through the nebula, its red and angry eyes seeking for a target to satisfy their bottomless bloodlust, a result of an extremely intelligent ex-criminal's programming. None of the units transmitted to each other at all, as such an act was deemed unnecessary by their programming. That was until one of the unknown mobile suits switched to heat vision and detected an anomaly on one of the asteroids. A massive heat signal, with outlines of possible hostile mobile suits among the heat signal as well.

"Contact. 100 miles out. Combat commencing." It muttered to the rest of the units.

* * *

Feldt drifted to the mess hall with a carton of juice in her hand, where Marie was fondling with her smartphone to kill time until the pink haired Meister candidate decided to resume her training. "Hey Feldt." The super soldier with white hair called out to her. Feldt plopped down onto a seat next to Marie's, and removed her pink jacket after realising she was sweating badly, despite the coldness of deep space.

"Peries-san!" Feldt greeted, but soon noticed Marie was holding her laughter, for some reason. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"What is going on in your little head?" Marie grinned devilishly, although she was already quite clear of what Feldt was thinking thanks to her quantum brainwaves. She was only pretending not to know so she would be less embarrassed. That was the same kind of thoughts when her Marie personality first resurfaced, only it was more mature and she was more serious about living with her love Allelujah Haptism.

"What do you mean by that?" Replied Feldt, oblivious about Marie's ability to read her mind.

Marie couldn't help but let out a chuckle. As cruel as it sounds, Feldt's feelings for Setsuna, especially when unraveled, was quite amusing, and Feldt's denial only made it even more amusing. "Have someone in mind?" Marie pursued.

"No! Certainly no...or..." Feldt eventually sighed in defeat and told her story after remembering she had the guts to tell old captain Sumeragi the same thing. "...well...I do." She admitted, her face now red as the blood in her veins.

"Don't worry. Nobody's listening." Marie reassured, and looked around the mess hall to make sure her statement wasn't denied by some other crew. "What do you think of him?"

Feldt stared at the blank table, trying to process Marie's sudden question. But in the end, all she could come up with was her honest answer. "I want him to know, but...I don't think he'll ever see it, or if he can even come back." She said sadly and twitched her finger to cope with her nerves now racing faster than a Ferrari.

"That's why some people tend to simply say it. It's the easiest way to let him know." Said Marie. "Because the Setsuna I know...is just stupid enough not to see it." She continued when Allelujah stepped into the mess hall, with a towel over his neck and his hair reflecting the light from the ceiling.

"Who is stupid enough not to see what?" He asked curiously, startling both Marie and Feldt. "Alle!" Marie protested, while Feldt giggled next to her upon hearing the Meister's new nickname. "Oh Alle's a cute name." Feldt teased, only to be slapped from behind by Marie. Allelujah plopped down beside Marie, the water on his hair still dripping off the table.

"Great. Now I've completely forgotten what I wanted to say to her." She said sarcastically. Allelujah almost instantly dropped his smile and was about to leave the mess hall when Feldt stopped him. "Wait. You might know something I don't." She requested.

Allelujah hesitated, but eventually concluded that he and Marie were actually the only ones qualified to give relationship advice. Ian and Linda were far too outdated, Milenia's love for Tieria was likely to be nothing more than a simpleton crush, and Lockon's love interest Anew Returner was long deceased. "Good point." He finally said just before a siren came ringing in the hallways and into the trio's ears.

"Report from the lookout! Four unknown mobile suits! All hands battle stations! All hands battle stations!" The lookout staff announced through the broadcasters. Allelujah grimaced, and took Marie and Feldt with him to the hangar where his Harute II was waiting.

"Both of you, to the turrets. The only pilot going out is me." He ordered and hastily donned his orange pilot suit, while fitting himself into the tight cockpit of the now replenished Gundam. Its cannon pack was only installed minutes ago, brand new and completely untested, with the same outlook as the original Harute's cannons. Unfortunately aside from the standard beam sabers on its skirt the cannons were Allelujah's only weapon, since the model was only constructed hastily days ago by the unceasing efforts of human engineers and countless Karels.

Marie and Feldt rushed to the well-concealed turrets in their white space suits exclusive to Celestial Being operatives, and activated their weapons while Allelujah marched his mobile suit to the launch catapult a dozen meters in front of him. He certainly wasn't happy about having his break interrupted by the intrusion of those mobile suits, and as a result he decided to play his favourite music in his cockpit, an act initially rejected by Veda and Tieria, but approved after conducting an experiment on Feldt's mobile suit training. She unknowingly proved that listening to music before a battle could significantly improve one's performance, and once Allelujah heard of it he quickly scrambled through the internet to find the music for his type.

He settled on a song performed in the 21st century, considerably old but good enough to keep the super soldier moving. "The first words that come out, and I can see this song will be about you..." He hummed as the bulking Harute II locked its mechanical boots onto the catapult below him, followed by a greeting from control center's mini boss. "Good day, Allelujah-san. Transferring launch time to Harute II."

"Roger." Allelujah left his music playing on its own and simply replied. _I can't believe I can breathe without you, but all I need to do is carry on._

"Gundam Harute II, Allelujah Haptism, commencing interception!" He thrusted both controllers forward, sending the Gundam flying out of the hangar and in an interception course towards the yellow mobile suits in the distance. _The next line I write down, and there's a tear that falls between the pages._

 _I know that pain's supposed to heal in stages, b_ _ut it depends which one I'm standing on..._


	3. Chapter 3: Intrusion

Intrusion

Lagrange 4

The Gundam Harute halted a hundred meters away from the asteroid base of Lagrange 4 and charged its twin cannons as the yellow mobile suits of unknown faction approached well over the speed of sound. The CIC operator in the control centre tried to hail the mobile suits through every channel they had, only to hear the response of nonsense blabbering from their programming. Allelujah didn't like the sound of it, and all that's between his finger and the trigger was the permission to engage from the control centre.

"Unknown mobile suits, this is your final warning. Leave the airspace at once or be shot down." Yet the yellow dots showed no signs of deviation, or even and willingness to talk to them, leaving the operator with no other choice but to order Allelujah to go weapons free. Once he got the word the cannons of the Harute II started glowing in a pink bright enough for both the control officers and the mobile suits to notice it. The mobile suits instinctively scattered as one of the beams hurtled towards them, just as Allelujah predicted. As a counter he pointed the other cannon off his right, allowing him to score a hit on one of them and triggering an eerily silent explosion.

One of the mobile suits transformed and revealed a built-in rifle, while the surviving two made a run for the incomplete Harute II now hovering in position, its cannons ready to take another shot. With the encouraging music still playing inside the cockpit, Allelujah was able to score another shot at an incoming mobile suit.

His victory was short lived, however, as a third mobile suit came out of nowhere and started pounding the E-carbon armour of his with its fists and its cannon mounted on the right arm. Allelujah quickly shook the enemy off and ignited Harute II's beam saber, but missed when the yellow mobile suit suddenly sped out of melee range, forcing him to use his non-dominant arm to keep up with the unfriendly presence of hostile mobile suits.

* * *

"Don't worry about the transforming mechanism. Just put a weapon on the Ahriman. Hurry up!" Linda ordered anxiously as the chatter in the control centre only grew more intense. It was told that their base's position was already given away, but before they abandon it both Linda and Marie knew they must make a stand, even if it's with mobile suits that weren't even halfway finished.

"CBS-74 Ptolemy! Do you read us, over!" The same officer that directed Harute II's launch cried nervously, but once again her efforts were in vain as the only response was static. Although Allelujah's still alive and well, there's no telling whether he could keep it this way, and all the turrets were doing was distract the enemy and give them another bullseye to shoot at.

Marie, getting more and more desperate as time flew, decided to take matter to her own hands and started piecing a salvaged rifle for her mobile suit together. The manipulator arm now switched to manual control slowly moved a GN blade from the training base's reserve racks under a beam rifle that apparently once belonged to the very faction that had a grudge with Celestial Being...the Earth Sphere Federation. The very government created to respond to Celestial Being's armed interventions, and the government currently ruling over planet Earth.

"Done! Can it sortie now?" Marie launched her foot onto a railing next to the arm's controls, sending her drifting back towards the Ahriman while a Haro unit took her place and moved the weapon right next to the new Gundam.

"Well the essentials are in place, but…" Linda was cut off by the hyperactive super soldier. "No buts. I'm launching now, as long as this functions."

Linda was about to protest, but when she heard Allelujah's grimacing yet again through comms she knew there was only one thing that might get them all out of this mess. So reluctantly she helped Marie into the hatch of the Ahriman, and passed her crimson helmet to her. "Don't overdo it. We're already lacking parts for this thing." She warned, her tone never stern to such a level which shook Marie.

"Noted." Marie shut the hatch once she was the only one inside Ahriman's cockpit, and stepped onto the launch catapult only after her machine's heads-up display was activated. Normally she'd have to take a deep breath before firing herself out into space, but thanks to her years of experience as a pilot that was no longer absolutely necessary. "Gundam Ahriman, Soma Peries, launching!" She shouted after her tougher and more headstrong persona took over the Marie inside her. If there's one thing the Marie persona couldn't do, it was fighting. But she knew who could, and that would be her other set of personality, Soma Peries.

Her orders were quite specific. Remain near the Lagrange station and act as a replacement for the stationary turrets to keep them from getting shot at, as well as watching Allelujah's back while he would try to lure the last two mobile suits closer. "Won't mind if you help me out, Marie!" Allelujah requested after missing a shot. To his horror all he could do was further angering the yellow mobile suits which have barely missed his efforts to take them down. And revealing their fury red eyeball on the left of their chassis, both of them made a charge for the Harute II, leaving Allelujah in a very unfavourable position.

But they miscalculated one thing as well, Marie, as well as her Ahriman. She calmly pointed the shortened rifle at the nearest mobile suit, and pulled down the trigger on her right joystick until she saw fragments of yellow flying past Allelujah. The last one was now at Allelujah's mercy. Though Allelujah was long used to killing anyone that posed hostility to Celestial Being, his persona was smart enough to use nothing more than fists, until he was sure the yellow mobile suit with a seemingly transformable chassis was totally immobilised.

"Got them." He painted breathlessly as if the Harute was running out of oxygen. Marie, or Soma at the moment, was in fact quite stable. And as a result she was able to reply with full sentences. "You don't sound good." She pointed out.

"And you're flying out in a skeleton." Allelujah joked upon seeing the Ahriman that has only half of its armour on. He picked up the wreckage floating in front of his mobile suit, and followed Marie back to their home base as soon as he made sure he didn't get any wounds, both externally and internally.

* * *

The battleship coated in blue and white paint along with a thin GN field lay motionless in the training station, with half its crew inside the maintenance hangar which was vacant so as to offer space to investigate the recent attacks of the yellow mobile suits. Ian had been scrounging through the wreckage for the past hour, but his response to his findings were more or less the same. "More electronics?"

"This is definitely automated." Lyle Dylandy, the Gundam Meister designated to marksman duty, commented as Ian pulled out the nearly destroyed eyeball of the mobile suit, revealing its black box which recorded its every programming, provided that it wasn't already deleted when Allelujah disabled it.

"This one! This is all we need." Ian called out. "Smelt the rest of it. We're gonna need parts." He ordered while leading the Meisters, including those who weren't already officially appointed by Veda. Upon hearing the irregular footsteps outside the sick bay Allelujah bolted upright and followed, despite the endless objections of the medical Haro units. He nearly tripped over a cord as he left the room, startling Lyle right beyond the door.

Allelujah hurriedly closed the door behind him, still wearing a white medical coat and plimsolls that made him stand out. "Thought you panicked somewhere along the way." Lyle joked.

"Did not. What is all this?" He protested.

"Ian-san found a blackbox of the mobile suit that attacked you. We're going to decode it and see what's in that thing." Lyle explained. "You better go help your girlfriend instead."

Out of nowhere Allelujah felt the urge to give his partner a good one, and decided he will, but only after things were settled. As soon as Lyle made sure he had disappeared he hurried up to Setsuna's side, who was as quite as he always was. "You still haven't told me what ticked you off when you first came back." He demanded.

"It's private." He replied flatly, trying not to show his unsolved inner turmoil.

"You don't actually have to come, Setsuna. There won't be anything to tell you until this black box is decoded anyway." Ian added as a way of encouraging Setsuna to open himself again, like he tried to do after the deadly fights above Lagrange 2. Without any reason to object, Setsuna lead Lyle to a corridor with windows on one side and handlebars to cope with zero gravity on the other. He paused halfway, and turned to Lyle who was already getting curious to hear his story.

"Did anyone ever mention Feldt's becoming a Gundam Meister?" Setsuna asked sternly.

Lyle was having a hard time going through his memory log for a moment, but then out of the blue he decided to have a little fun. "Well, you just mentioned it." He replied casually.

"I'm being serious, Lockon." Somehow Setsuna decided to use Lyle's codename, Lockon Stratos. In fact Setsuna wasn't the real name of the boy having mental issues either, but he'd rather not mention it. "This is no laughing matter." He reminded.

"Alright, no one. But why mention all of a sudden?" Asked Lyle.

"I can't stop thinking of her."

If there's one thing Lyle never saw coming, it was this. A simple, open response to a seemingly sensitive matter. Come to think of it, not even Lyle had the balls to open up his feelings to anyone, not to mention the woman he loved when she was still loyal to Celestial Being. That was until before one battle when he realised he might lose his life if he keeps flying a Gundam out into space to fight.

"Why not? I definitely have no right to answer you for that." But then Lyle's 'experience' flashed in front of him, and instantly made him burst out laughing. "This isn't what I think it is, right? I'm so happy for you. You have something I don't." He joked.

"I don't get it." Setsuna replied.

"Let me get this straight," Lyle finally managed to keep himself under control. "I think you shouldn't waste time on me." He stated, only to confuse Setsuna even further. "You spend time with her while you're still alive. I don't know how, but that's what my guts are saying."

"Now it makes a lot of sense."

"Hell. If you got the nerves you can even propose right before deploying, like I did." Lyle grinned as he pictured the day he shouted out those three words that'll shock the living daylights out of every bridge crew of Ptolemy, and so did Setsuna after he remembered listening to the crew's reaction to the sudden declaration of his.

And for the next few minutes Setsuna stood in place like a statue, wondering just what could he do for the pink haired girl, or rather, woman.


	4. Chapter 4: Anew Destination

Author note: There may be more that one pairing in this story.

* * *

Anew Destination

Lagrange 4

In the middle of a multipurpose room within the Lagrange 4 sat a blackbox that belonged to the yellow mobile suit shot down and captured by Allelujah after it tried to assault the space station wit its counterparts. Its cover was pried open after Ian decided to apply violence, and was plugged to a series of wires that connected to a supercomputer he brought to help his investigation.

"What the heck is a loader?" Ian shouted to himself upon reading the complex programming of the blackbox. Thankfully it was written in English, but that didn't make his job easier at all, as Ian's usual duty was to replace broken parts of the Meisters' mobile suits, and leave the electronics to his wife. Unfortunately even after an hour of persuading, she still insisted on watching over Feldt's endless practicing.

He scrolled through the protocols but so far he hasn't found anything that interests him. That was until he came across some of the mobile suit's combat protocols and noticed a name 'Jack'.

 _Clearly not the name of this mobile suit._

* * *

Setsuna emerged from the station's gym as he put his white shirt over his chest. Normally he would've stayed in there working out and endlessly doing push ups until his stomach starts protesting. But after realising what keeping his distance from everyone would result in, he decided there was something that he should also attend to.

He floated his way to the mobile suit hangar, where the Harute II and the rest of its components lay just as he expected. Outside the Harute stood a woman in a white spacesuit, apparently monitoring the progress of the Meister candidate. As soon as Setsuna set foot on the platform a floor below him the cockpit hatch popped open with a white cloud quickly forming around it. Hopping out of the cockpit was no other that Feldt Grace, the person Setsuna's been dwelling on in the past few days.

"Before you get any ideas, you've been sitting in that cockpit for a whole night straight. Get at least six hours of sleep before you appear in here." She crossed her arms and glared at a weary Feldt, but as always, she didn't budge, and was ready to get back inside after she scanned her results. She broke her high score despite the presence of Aheads, but at the price of major armour damage, along with two lost limbs. "Not a chance." She murmured, but was stopped when Setsuna ambushed her with his arms.

She found herself wrapped by Setsuna's arms, and her eyelids suddenly felt like they weighted tons. "I figured I owe you a hug from that medical capsule." He whispered softly.

Before she knew it, she passed out in Setsuna's arms to the warmth of his body, with a slight smile planted on her face. "Never though I'd thank you for that. Now I can save all the hassle." Linda thanked as the young Meister carried his friend deeper into the space station and to Feldt's quarters. Setsuna carried her as if he was transporting an infant, and thanks to the space station's low gravity he was able to lift her without a hitch, until he ran into Milenia who just came out of Ian's office.

He instinctively shushed Milenia quietly as he drifted by, while keeping his fingers crossed that the romantic operator would leave him in peace for just a moment. Thankfully Milenia seemed to get his message, and simply whispered 'roger' as he went on to her room with nothing to note aside from a bed and a moveable TV screen. He could only go as far as taking off her standard space suit, and tucked her in her bed with her uniform still on.

 _To think it's seven in the morning...Feldt's going nuts._

And of course Setsuna could only fool the clairvoyant called Milenia for so long. He ended up running into her for the second time of the day in the mess hall after hurriedly filling his stomach. To make matters worse, she brought Lyle with her to subdue him before he could come up with an excuse to be elsewhere.

Lyle strangled his neck and forced him back onto a seat. Setsuna protested by swinging his arm towards whatever he could reach, but in the end all he could reach was Lyle and Milenia's iron grip. "How's your work?" Lyle asked slyly as Setsuna's rear end slammed onto the chair.

"You don't have to pin me like this to get me talking!" He resisted and tried to pry the older Meister's arm off his neck to keep his spine intact, but Lyle wasn't budging, and neither was Milenia who got held back when she first tried to question Setsuna.

"I'm fine with sharing a bit of my privacy if you want." That was probably the last thing any of them were expecting to hear from him. The Setsuna they used to know would never give in, even when his precious Gundam Exia was used as a hostage. "Lockon told me to change. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm trying to do. In fact, so did you." He declared.

"So you're changing...by looking for love. That's an interesting way." Lyle tried to interpret, and purposely stressed the word 'love' to further irritate Setsuna.

"What's wrong with that?" He protested to their tone, only to receive a reply from Marie who overheard the commotion from outside.

"You can interrogate him later. Ian-san wants you all in his office, ASAP." Milenia sighed and had Lyle let him loose. Setsuna rubbed his neck to check for any injuries the care free Lyle might've caused him, and followed the rest to Ian's office around the corner.

* * *

"Look at it.'' Ian pointed at the stripped black box of the yellow mobile suit. "Whatever this thing belongs to, it's not a mobile suit. Or at least not called one." He started to explain as the rest of the crew gathered around chatted, mostly discussing the origin of such an old but foreign device. A black box certainly wasn't any new technology, but a type like the one they're staring at was different.

"It's called a loader, and apparently this one's programmed for long-range exploration." The engineer continued, and so did the chattering.

"So why did it attack us?" Allelujah couldn't help asking, as he was the one that got shot like crazy thanks to the 'loaders'. It was only natural for him to be curious about his attackers, and the same goes to his girlfriend Marie.

"From what I read it's likely because of the Gundams and their heat signatures. They look like a life form, and the mobile suits are programmed to kill anything it sees. Of course that's all just a wild guess of mine." Ian admitted. "But anyhow, we're going to do something about it."

That got their attention. As he finished his statement everyone was shooting death glares at him, demanding a means to deal with their current situation. "Well, we can finish the new Gundams faster." Allelujah suggested.

"If you all agree I say we try to find where this thing is from. In other words, we might be going out of the Solar System." He suggested boldly, shocking everyone present, even Setsuna himself. But before any of them could respond by telling the potential risk and the unknown variables of such an unplanned journey, the siren of the base rang for the second time of the week, and apparently this time it wasn't just an exploration party.

Lyle hastily wore his pilot suit in green that matched the colour of his mobile suit, the Gundam Dynames. It wasn't his original machine, but with it under maintenance and still missing a limb, he was forced to roll with his reserve suit. On the other hand, Setsuna's 00 QanT was quite unharmed and an hour of tuning was all it need to get it into perfect condition. The Innovator got dressed in the cockpit of his machine, while the Dynames marched onto the launch catapult first with a sniper rifle holstered on its right shoulder.

"Dynames and Lockon Stratos, targeted and firing!" The Meister did his best to replicate his brother's tone and bolted out the hangar with his mobile suit. Setsuna followed close behind with the QanT, and accelerated into space moments later.

"Lockon, you don't have to worry about the particle supply. We've refitted Zabanya's GN drive to the Dynames, so you, may use Trans-am if you need to." Lasse stated while monitoring the hostile squadron in the control room, clearly the same as before, only that one of them seemed to be larger than the rest surrounding it. "And be careful. There's a new model among the enemy. Engage at your discretion." He warned as Lyle and Setsuna halted their machines between a pair of asteroids.

"It looks like a red mobile suit, with really big guns." Lyle warned and drew the GN rifle from the Dynames' shoulder, while Setsuna typed on the switches on either side of him to release the sword bits. "You up front, and I'll watch your back!"

"They aren't stopping." Soon enough the leading pair of yellow mobile suits transformed and revealed their weapon. "Setsuna F. Seiei, eliminating the target!"

* * *

One of the enemy mobile suits, or loaders as Ian called, somehow managed to latch onto Setsuna's machine, but was sniped down by Lyle from afar. He instantly moved onto his next target as Setsuna kicked the doomed drone away. "Gotcha!" Lyle cried as another yellow spot got into his way, and was pierced by the compressed GN particles fired to it.

Setsuna moved the sword bits to cut down the red mobile suit, only to be ambushed by its vulcan cannons as it transformed and repelled all of QanT's bits. He managed to dodge the projectiles flying at him in a deadly speed, but that also meant getting in close with a CQC machine like the QanT would be as hard as trying to shake Milenia and Lyle and some other curious crew members off his back.

Desperate to defeat the new mobile suit he combined all his bits into a buster rifle, and piped it out of the asteroid to take down the red mobile suit. Unfortunately the red one wasn't only well-armed, but also quite fast, as it dodged Setsuna's shot upon seeing it emerge from behind the asteroid. Even though a quarter of the intruders were taken down by the combined efforts of Lyle and Setsuna, the considerably bigger red one was still a huge pain in the butt for both of them.

"I can't do any more than putting a few scratches on it!" Lyle complained.

"Well how about this. Activating Trans-am!" Setsuna shouted and punched the main display in front of him. Almost instantly his machine glowed in crimson that could be seen all the way back in their base, and half the QanT's GN particle storage was drained to saturate its muscles and allow it to close in without getting hit. Setsuna drew the QanT's sword and penetrated its back, but despite being able to disable the machine, he was immediately targeted by the remaining loaders and took a few hits before he could move out of the way.

The QanT was dented on the back and above its rear end, forcing Setsuna to hover behind an asteroid to recover himself, leaving Lyle to deal with the rest of the horde alone. He eventually got rammed by a yellow mobile suit as well, but was saved when the QanT's sword bits sliced its chassis as if it was butter. The QanT then proceeded to divide the last three of the mobile suits, only to miss his attack when they received a retreat order from a space station in a system far away.

"Are you okay, Setsuna?"

"A bit scratched up." Setsuna followed Lyle's winged machine, and retrieved the wreckage of the red mobile suit as Ian requested once he got word the fighting was over. Both suits landed safely in the space station, and were welcomed by both Vashtis as they left their cockpits.

"How long is this gonna take?" Asked Setsuna.

"Maybe till night at best." Ian had the Karels take the upper torso of the red mobile suit away, Setsuna half expected Lyle to team up with Milenia and start pounding his ears again, but to his surprise he left for the observation deck, without even muttering a word. And since there wasn't anything interesting to do until Ian could decrypt whatever's in the red mobile suit, he decided to tail him and see what he's up to. Or if Ian's lazy enough to hand it over to Veda, there might be a result by midday.

"You did well out there. Is something concerning you?" Sutsuna piped up from nowhere, startling the daydreaming Lyle Dylandy and nearly giving him a nasty heart attack.

"Huh? Oh nothing. It's just...things haunting me." He answered in a particularly dodgy manner.

"Okay." Said Setsuna. "But you can always talk to Tieria if you need to." He suggested.

"That computer freak? I'd rather ask you for advice." Lyle rejected sarcastically.

"He did tell me that the other day. And I think he means it."

Lyle finally decided not to express his opinion on Tieria's reliability when it comes to stress relief, and carried on staring aimlessly at the infinite star systems they're about to travel to.

* * *

"I've finally found it!" Ian cheered. "I've finally found the hornet's nest!"

At this point all that's left in Ian's office were the official Meisters themselves and a handful of curious station staffs who were on their breaks. The rest were either still on high alert for another wave of attackers in the control tower or busy restoring the Gundams that were meant to be the pioneers of their forces. "Go on." Setsuna demanded simply.

"It's a long story. 164 years ago, where the three superpowers were newly established. Led by the Human Reform League, the three launched a project named 'Pandora'. Its objective, to maroon every criminal with serious offences into deep space. A one way trip to hell, I'd call." Ian explained. "But looks like those smart asses didn't take reproduction into account when they came up with this idea. And now, my hypothesis is that they're pissed off, and they're sending mobile suits like the one you caught everywhere in a conquest to return to their long lost home."

Marie couldn't help by sigh in defeat at the rear of the line of people as she heard the very name of her homeland. _First a super soldier project that made monsters like me and Allelujah, now this? How foolish can they get?_

"So we're really going out of the solar system." Lyle suggested.

"That's right. Even Veda's in. Now we just have to wait for his speculations on the journey and prepare ourselves."


	5. Chapter 5: On the Other Side

On the Other Side

Veda OS

Inside a void of only computer programming lay Tieria, in his purple uniform as always. Although a software like him theoretically never needs to rest, he still decided to slack off for a while after processing every known and unknown variable of the Ptolemaios' trip out of the solar system. He fully understood the logic behind such a bold journey, and with the world now in peace at last, there was no reason to object this journey that might be a battle to eradicate the last threat to mankind.

 _They need food and raw materials. Lots of them._ He recalled as he checked the date. March 2. In fact, he almost forgot it was almost Lyle's birthday. But with his somewhat annoyingly outgoing personality and his bad flirting habits, the stoic Tieria found it hard to think of any present to give him. All he might be able to do was to greet him happy birthday when he uses his Haro. That was until he came across a file loaded with genetic information of a batch of Innovades.

He found himself staring at a seemingly reinforced doorway glowing in a dim blue, with a code lock on its right. Recognising the lock and its corresponding binary code, Tieria typed it in and launched himself into the doorway, allowing his momentum to take him to where he needs to go: the most updated consciousness of every Innovade that was ever created.

A great number of these consciousnesses were permanently erased by Veda, after being deemed to be far too dangerous to live on. Ribbons Almark was the first to be erased, after Celestial Being took back Veda from his hands, along with his loyal followers that served under Ribbons and with the Earth Sphere Federation in order to write their own dialogues of the world, which was no different from totalitarianism.

Tieria grinned as he flew past these empty files marked as 'trash', remembering to utter excitement he went through when his precious Veda was finally returned to the right hands. There was one set of consciousness that Veda refused to erase, though. And after the prolonged entanglement with the rogue Ribbons it was restrained by a set of firewalls, with nowhere to go and nothing new to take in. The worst part of it was that it didn't need to be fed in any way, allowing both Tieria and Veda to agree with bounding it with the most painful chains to prevent it from cutting loose.

But not today. After Tieria's careful processing of odds and ends, he thought letting him stay this way was unhealthy for him. And with even Setsuna's agreement on his suggestion, which was probably heavily influenced by his feelings for Feldt, he drifted on until he reached a container tube like file that was labelled as Anew Returner.

* * *

Setsuna stared at his red scarf, deciding whether to take with him onto the Ptolemy or not, as well as his set of casual clothes. In the end, like most of the crew, he concluded that it was best for him to have a set of reserve clothing in case he somehow falls into a drainage pipe or something worse.

He went on to filter his belongings scattered across his quarter. His space grown flower, which was given by Feldt and somehow retrieved by Ptolemy's helpful crew, made the cut and went into his borrowed duffel bag. The rest that didn't make it were either tossed into a bin or placed in a row of storage lockers on the space station. He had just finished settling himself in the Ptolemy when he ran into his pink haired partner. "Feldt." He greeted simply.

"How long exactly did you pass out?"

Feldt couldn't help mentally face palming herself upon hearing the rather embarrassing question. She had went dark for thirty hours, to be exact, as it was her first take on extended training sessions like the one she had before. After that and the fact that Setsuna had to carry her back to her room after accidentally putting her out by hugging her too tight, Milenia and Marie would never let her hear the end of it.

"I'd rather not answer that one." Feldt held her hands together in front of her belt. "But...not being mad at you, why would you do that?" She asked.

"I told you. I owed you a hug from the medical capsule." He said flatly as he carried on heading to the Ptolemy.

Feldt couldn't help laughing at Setsuna's odd answer. "That's not how a hug works." She explained and did her best to cut her laughter. Feldt reached for him, but suddenly flinched after realising that she might set off a bomb if she touched him. She didn't hesitate to tell him why she jolted either.

"Just don't touch me in the mouth with yours. Yet." Setsuna joked, and silently permitted Feldt to rest her head on his shoulder for a brief moment before entering the warship. He had already made up his mind. He was going to give it all a shot, but as professional as possible, just like the way Lyle did. He was good enough to keep his relationship with the late Anew a secret until he didn't want to anymore, and he was planning to follow his footsteps.

"By the way, are you free tomorrow?" He asked as an idea finally came to his mind.

"Well I definitely won't be practicing too much tomorrow. Why?" Feldt said curiously.

"I'd...I'd like to take you to see the stars, in a Gundam." Setsuna suggested.

* * *

Somewhere out of the solar system, far from the known homeworld of humanity, lay a space station in the shape of an 'H' with its center glowing in a bright white to ensure every living being below on the planet of Pandora could see it. It floated between Pandora and its dark moon spilling out lava and drawing lines of crimson, known as none other than Elpis. Both planets were first discovered when the Human Reform League 'tossed out the trash' and exported hundreds of thousands of criminals and convicts to these planets, now inhabited by a massive population far less aggressive and far more friendly that their ancestors.

Yet some of these descendants held a grudge with the people who live their lives peacefully on Earth. One worth noting was a man called Jack, currently the CEO of a newly established superpower named Hyperion. He sat in his personal office that overlooked half of Pandora and the stars behind it, with stacks of alcohol and Hyperion manufactured weapons stocked behind his recliner.

All was fine and well on the space station called Helios, with the martial law on Pandora underway and the Vault being one step closer from opened. Shall the Vault's power be unleashed, it wouldn't be a problem anymore to return to Earth and take the planet for themselves after all the years of enduring in the wretched system. Perhaps the only bother of today was the disappearance of a dozen of Loader units, last seen at the old coordinates of the planet of Mars.

He soon heard a knock on the door. He signalled his staff to enter, and heard at his dismay that the Loader units were confirmed to be destroyed by an unknown enemy. A WAR variant was sent to investigate in the sector, but suffered the same fate. "That is unfortunate. But now we've found what we need." He stated.

"How so?" The staff asked.

"Now we have the way to Mars. We'll find the way to Earth soon enough. And when that day comes..."

"...our revenge will be fulfilled."


	6. Chapter 6: Counting Stars

Counting Stars

CBS-74 Ptolemaios

A day has passed since the Celestial Being warship left for the origin of the mysterious mobile suits that attacked their faction. Setsuna had asked Feldt out of a date, and this time he was trying something neither Lyle nor Allelujah have tried on their other half. One that involved his dear friend Gundam Exia.

He checked every system in the cockpit for one last time just to be very sure, while Ian reluctantly helped him out with the externals. "I still don't have a clue on how you got this idea." The chief mechanic grumbled.

Setsuna refused to utter a word, as usual. "GN condenser linkup checked, green. All systems green." He muttered and floated out of the cockpit, ignoring Ian's objection of him going out for a date in space.

He had checked Feldt's schedule with Lasse. She was supposed to have her break after six. And on top of that, Milenia was supposed to take her place, so she couldn't bug him and screw up his plans. For the first time in many years, Setsuna felt a drop of sweat of anxiety running down his skin, the sign of the Innovator being nervous.

Feldt closed the door of her room, with a washed space suit folded in her hand. She noticed a figure in a black pilot suit walking towards her. His helmet had white stripes with a thick blue one in the middle, instead of having the whole suit in blue. Apparently they've invented newer G-suits that she'll get to wear.

"Setsuna." She called out.

"You ready?" He halted in front of her and asked. Feldt nodded eagerly, and the two of them floated to the hangar silently, avoiding the sights of the rest of the crew.

Setsuna booted the Exia's GN condenser and activated every other system necessary, while Feldt settled herself on his lap once he was done with the startups. "I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable." She muttered on the way out.

"No...not really." Without using the launch catapult to stay close with the Ptolemy, Setsuna marched the Exia out of the runway that was even shorter than a soccer field. He carefully maneuvered the mobile suit above and behind the Ptolemy's bridge, where an ideal observation point for them to spend their time was waiting for them. Once they both attached themselves to a safety rope and checked their space suits Setsuna opened the cockpit hatch, and led Feldt to Exia's shoulder plate.

"I thought you preferred staying in the ship to see stars." Feldt suggested.

"There's only so much you can see in there. Out here, you can basically look at any direction and still see a lot of them." Replied Setsuna. Moments later he found his hand trying to rest on her shoulder, but out of a lack of guts he decided to simply clutch on her suit's SAFER pack, where she normally wouldn't feel a thing. Normally.

His slowly growing emotional side somehow convinced him to pull her body a bit closer, a little bit at a time, until she noticed Setsuna's grasp. She didn't mind at all. In fact, it felt nice. The warmth from him despite the cold vacuum of space was more than enough to warm her heart.

"Come to think of it, I never got to see a nebula myself." She finally decided to break the silence.

"And to think there are actually aliens out there." Setsuna answered.

By pure coincidence he remembered one thing he wanted to ask her, but in the end he either deemed it was too unprofessional or forgot about it thanks to the numerous tasks that came down on him. "May I tell you something?"

Feldt turned to the Meister upon hearing his request. It wasn't like him to ask for something out of nowhere. He usually fixes problems himself, or copes with it until it becomes a part of his life. "Of course you can." She replied.

"You look better when you keep your hair."

Frankly she was caught off guard by his opinion about someone else's looks. This definitely didn't seem like him, at least not what he usually was. But she didn't bother to complain. If this was what he asked, then that's the least she could do for him.

"I honestly thought it was some big time requests." She promised. "I wonder, if you know which star out there is which. Just curious." She continued.

"I think... that star over there, is called Lupus."

In the corridors of the Ptolemy roamed a puzzled Lyle. He had been summoned by Tieria in a quite urgent manner. He heard it right, it was Tieria himself. To make matters worse, he had Lyle go to the Veda interface room where only Tieria would go, the most mysterious corner of the whole ship.

And out of all the days he could've gotten himself into trouble it had to be his birthday. He had expected to have to mentally celebrate it himself, and nothing more. "Happy birthday to myself, Lyle." He had said to himself for countless times today.

The door behind him shut with a hiss, and the blue lights within the walls saved Lyle from the horrifying darkness. The gravity under his boots were soon shut off as a sign that Tieria was aware of his presence, followed by the appearance of his holographic image, as realistic as his very own flesh. "I suppose I screwed things up?" Lyle questioned.

"Trouble is not the only thing I can bring." Tieria stated calmly. "Sometimes all that trouble comes with happiness too." Lyle noticed a second holo image forming next to a grinning Tieria, and soon enough he found out why he looked so smug about the surprise he got from him.

Or to be precise, a reunion Lyle never saw coming.

"I'm not going to lie. I was just trying to look for someone to help with the manpower issue." Lyle got a good look at the image next to him, and was all too shocked to see its familiar lavender hair, its heartwarming smile, and to hear it whisper his name.

"Lyle."

His expressionless face soon turned into a face with strands of tears and happiness which words could never describe began to flow inside his soul. His arms made a move first, and he found himself wrapping them around the projected body of his love. Never will it feel real for him, and never will it be able to mend him, but hearing her voice might just be good enough for him.


	7. Chapter 7: Beyond

Beyond

CBS-74 Ptolemaios

"About damn time!" Marie couldn't help shouting as she got word from Linda that the Ahriman was finally completed. Another week has passed since Anew was officially assigned to Ptolemy as an onboard 'AI', and eight days since their departure. A week and a half was fast as lightning for constructing an all-new mobile suit, but not for the impatient Marie Parfacy and Soma Peries.

She raced to the mobile suit hangar in ecstasy and paused next to Allelujah. A simple 'hey' was all she said to greet her companion. He caught her by her hand and helped her into the cockpit of the transformable mobile suit, while a magenta ball made its way inside and into the temporary Haro port located in front of Marie's right arm.

A prototype Gundam would always need a supporting Haro before it could roam free with its assigned pilot. Lyle was kind enough to lend one of his Haros for her to give the Ahriman her first flight, under the condition that its programming doesn't become more mischievous that it already was.

The only exception to this unspoken rule in her knowledge was the QanT, but that was because the software form of Tieria took its place and proved to be quite effective whenever weapons are involved. Perhaps his downside for not being humourous like the Haros was the main reason every other Gundam Meister preferred having

"Just shout or wave if anything goes wrong." Allelujah reminded before he drifted to his Harute.

"Shouldn't come to that." Marie reassured as the manipulator arms above the suit released the prototype from its cage, allowing it to proceed to the warship's port catapult. "Catapult voltage satisfactory. Verifying machine. GN-012 Gundam Ahriman. Check. Handing timing control to Ahriman." Milenia stated.

"The usual speech." Said Marie.

"Just don't do anything stupid with it." Peries returned, but as a well-behaved alter-ego she refrained from taking over control of the body she rested in.

"I have control." She heard Marie answer. "Gundam Ahriman, launching."

Back within a mobile suit hangar of Helios station sat a broad and bearded figure fiddling with his Hyperion-built assault rifle. Lying next to him was an Oz kit mass produced by the monopolistic faction of Hyperion, as well. "Two dozens of pioneer loaders missing a week after launch? Fairly interesting compared to my other contracts and assignments." He commented.

"Already fed up with the lowlifes down there, sir Wilhelm?" A mechanic in a bright yellow exoskeleton asked as he passed by with a box of tools under his armpit.

"Not quite sure. But it's a hell lot more fun when it involves a bit of danger." The enforcer called Wilhelm replied eagerly as he got off the stool under him. His JET mobile suit with a hollow core for the cockpit was waiting for him at the far end of the hangar ready to go as he requested, and standing next to it was a human-sized loader with a pair of glow sticks behind it.

The loader greeted the enforcer with a salute, which he returned. Then without saying a word save for acknowledging the loader's verbal checking, he hopped into his mobile suit set to a crouching position and stood it up along with the rest of his assault squadron, either manned mobile suits or traditional loaders.

His request was too sudden for his JET to undergo any enhancements, other than a more eye-catching paint job with a stripe of blood red that penetrated the JET's single eye on the left of its chassis. Yet enough for the AIs and his fellow pilots to tell who's in charge among them. Moments later the hangar was cleared out and eerily quiet, leaving the human engineers with nothing to do but pray that the human pilots come back in one piece. The AI loaders really didn't matter.

* * *

"It already went past mach 3?" Marie couldn't help exclaiming as the Gundam swept past an asteroid at a close range. "And I thought the GN Archer was already impressive."

"Things aren't the same when a GN drive is involved." Allelujah commented with reference to his own experience. His mobile suit drifted forward at Marie's eight o'clock with glowing teal particles continuously spraying out of its verniers, watching out for the red-striped mobile suit as it swung around another asteroid. "Should we go for the top speed, captain?" He asked.

Lasse glanced at the bridge crew monitoring the prototype mobile suit and hurriedly came up with a decision when most of them were as confused as he was. "Do as you please. But at the first sign of trouble you get back here. Clear?" He demanded.

"Yes captain." The super soldier replied joyously and released the accelerometer. He lay on the cushion seat with a deep breath, somewhat tired even though he had barely been working since the last battle of the ELS wars, aside from working out in the gym whenever he wasn't with Marie.

Recently he's been caught up in a dilemma which pretty much every human being has to go through somewhere in their life: whether or not to have a child with their other half. He had no intention to breed a split-personality psycho, but on the other hand, there wasn't any scientific proof to his worry. And as always, he wasn't careful enough to keep his private thoughts concealed well beneath quantum brainwave detection, because the next thing he knew, Marie switched on a private channel and started bombarding him with touchy questions.

"Something in your mind?" She asked with a suspicious tone.

"Not really." He replied casually.

"I'm not sure seeing myself with a swollen belly qualifies s 'not really'." Marie insisted to Allelujah's embarrassment. But as she spoke a slight laughter escaped her mouth.

"Well, I'm not really sure discussing something like this on patrol is a good idea." Defended a blushing Allelujah.

"Seriously, after we're done testing. Alright?"

"If you say so." He could already picture Marie smirking in the Ahriman's cockpit, wildly.

On the bridge, Milenia was about to doze off under Lasse's nose when a swarm of red dots on the radar screen got her attention. On top of one of the leading dots was a series of labels that indicated its origin and model number...which neither of them were available. "What the…?" She whispered and looked up the data the ship's radar collected. Unfortunately for her, all she could get was an image from the ship's long range camera and a hazy list of info she couldn't make use.

"I'm getting multiple readings on the E-sensor. ETA...10 minutes! It's the same type as before but there are five unknowns!" Milenia exclaimed from her seat.

"Call Harute and Ahriman off now. Have the QanT and Zabanya deploy right away!" The captain ordered as he flipped a switch with a red label underneath it. Seconds later anti-air siren has filled the Ptolemy, followed by standby orders issued through yet another broadcast.

Directly underneath them was the third hangar deck loaded with a single mobile suit none other than the almighty 00 QanT. Next to it was Ian with his pockets filled with tools and Setsuna dragging his helmet with him. "I don't say this often, but I say you better get in there now!" He requested.

On the other side of the walls of the hangar was the machine known as Zabanya. Lyle's, to be specific. Its head, unlike its counterparts, had a massive magenta lens exposed on its forehead, and its joints were covered in greenish armour with hidden missiles underneath.

"Sorry Lockon, but the bits are still under repair. You'll have to make do with your rifles." Linda reminded as Lyle hopped into the cockpit with two Haros tailing him.

"I'll be fine. Where do you want me?" He asked.

"Zabanya will stay near the ship and snipe down anything that gets too close. The QanT will engage their flank by hit and run. Throw them into confusion." Replied Lasse. The cockpit in front of the thirty-ish pilot closed, leaving the HUD around him the only source of light in the squeezy space. He marched the mobile suit and locked onto the launch catapult as it lowered itself to the launch deck moments later. Above the suit was a board indicating a standby signal, and next to it were a pair of guiding lights along the catapult.

Lyle reached for the music player wrapped with duct tape opposite to the Haro ports. He was equally surprised as Allelujah when he first heard of the change of regulations regarding to listening to music. And of course he didn't hesitate to take advantage of that.

"nokosareta yume no ato fumitsukeru. kimagure na shinigami ga tachidomatta…" The innovator could roughly put together the lyrics Lyle was humming

before he got the green light.

"Lockon Stratos, Zabanya, taking off!"

Setsuna could barely hear the sound of Lyle's Gundam take off from the catapult next to his as his mobile suit was positioned behind an opening bay door, revealing the sight of a trail of teal particles leaving the warship. He was told he wasn't supposed to launch immediately, so the only thing he could do right now was try to recognise Lyle's music.

surechigau boku wo miru tsumetaku

oroka na tsumi wo keshikakeru you ni

nobasareta te wo furi hodoite...

"Is that Unlimited Sky?" He asked.

"You got it right. Setsuna." Lyle had his mobile suit attach its soles to the back of the Ptolemy as he zoomed in his camera to locate his targets. "They're the old ones all right. What loyal customers." He commented and hovered his index finger next to the trigger, while waiting for one of the wingmen to move into his crosshair.

"Targeted and firing!"

fuki hareru kanashimi ga

kono mune wo kasumete

ikutabi mo kurikaesareru mujou ni

kaerenai natsukashiki hibi sae mo nikumeta

bokura ni nani ga dekiru?

kakagerareta eikou no imi nado

wakaranu mama...

From miles away came an explosion, but instead of mentally celebrating and moving on Lyle was confused by the eerily small size of the explosion. He mumbled something over the intercom, but was interrupted when the squadron swarmed in front of his scope.

kiri sutete kita hazu no kankaku ga

yomigaeru reisei wo matoi nagara

kasoku suru iradachi wo kakushita

kanjou nanka yaku ni tatanai

dakedo kokoro ga oitsukenai...

"Now, Setsuna!"

"00QanT, Setsuna F. Seiei, launching!"

hangyaku no SCENARIO ni

maiorita datenshi

naze kimi wa hikari no soto ni iru no ka

kizuita yo

moshi boku ja naku umareteitara

waratteirareta kana

mushou no ai sono naka de

kodoku nado shiranu mama...


	8. Chapter 8: 00QanT

00 QanT

1300km to Mars

An arc of light green formed behind the asteroid field hovering some distance away from the planet Mars. At the tip of the trail was a pack of projectiles fuelled by GN particles, guarding the 00 QanT as it crept to the loaders' right flank.

One loader was trailing smoke after grazing a shot from Zabanya, which immediately gained Setsuna's attention. The bits blasted their way past the frenzy, disabling two loaders in the process. Setsuna and the QanT soon found themselves clashing with the smoking loader. The GN sword V swung down on its head, cutting Setsuna's opponent clean.

He swiftly reversed direction after conforming his kill and tackled another two mobile suits. Before his blade could cut down the red mobile suit directly in front of him its left forearm lurched out and grabbed its wrist, keeping the blade from reaching the machine. Setsuna grumbled inside his cockpit as his opponent blocked his attack. He called the bits back before his opponent could make another move, managing to block one of its melee attacks and dodge another.

The bit control system coordinated a simultaneous attack on the red mobile suit. But it was fast, and instead an unmanned mobile suit fell victim to the GN powered bits. Setsuna streaked through the explosion with his GN sword swinging upright, and used it to dismember another loader before fatally wounding it.

His third intended target was grazed by the GN sword as it pulled back behind the asteroids. What took its place was the menacing red mobile suit from before. This time with guns blazing. Setsuna was skilful enough to keep himself from being hit, and with Lyle's help he managed to keep him at bay long enough for him to rest the back of his mobile suit against an asteroid.

Setsuna was getting impatient upon his first encounter where he was outmanoeuvred by his opponents. He summoned his bits and strafed the looming asteroids in front of him with his buster rifle. In a moment's notice the cluster of loaders and mobile suits were sent flying by the overpowering blast of weaponised GN particles, with the exception of the red one and another yellow mobile suit that decided to follow their leader.

Lyle was quick to sever the leg of the yellow mobile suit as it swung around to make a pass a Setsuna. He destroyed another unmanned one before a smokescreen exploded in front of them without warning. Both of them hesitated for a split second, only barely enough for the hostile squadron to pull out and fly back to where they came from.

The innovator pursued for another minute, halting the formation and downing another two before being ordered to pull back by captain Lasse. He reluctantly complied and lowered his handheld weapon, as well as retracting the bits. Milenia opened the left hatch for both mobile suits to return, with Lyle landing feet first followed by a hyperactive Setsuna.

"Seriously? How hard can it be?" Setsuna grumbled.

"That will become your last kill if you didn't listen. Who knows where they're going." Replied Lasse from the bridge.

"They seem smarter than before." Was the first thing Lyle said when he flew out of the cockpit with his helmet hanging off his neck. Allelujah, who was assisting him on the platform, silently agreed. Ian and a handful of Haros made it to the hangar only half a minute later. The ball shaped bots quickly took positions in the Karel repair bots, while Ian supervised the process from below.

As Lyle signalled Setsuna to follow him and head to the briefing room through the elevator he started a barrage of questions regarding to their most recent encounter. "They sent a new unit, right?"

"That's for sure. And it seems to be nearly immune to the bits." Setsuna commented. He wanted to voice his worries about how eventually even the QanT would be overpowered by their new foes right away, but that would have to wait until the rest of the crew gets to hear his words. "How many?"

"Huh?"

"I'm asking how many did you shoot down, Lockon." Said Setsuna.

"I lost count after four. And since when do you ask that?" Lyle looked at him, confused. Setsuna was lost for words for a older version of him would never speak for at least a quarter of a hour after the mission unless absolutely necessary. Come to talk about it, he seemed to talk more, too.

"I guess after the last ELS battle?" He randomly guessed.

After that none of them said another word until they reached the briefing room. They were soon joined by captain Lasse, a holographic Anew and the rest of the Meisters. upon entry Lasse turned off the lights so the holo images displayed would be crystal clear. "So we've got both good news and bad news. Which one first?"

Although no one really cared if one comes before another, they voted for the bad news. "Here're some images captured by Ptolemy's onboard camera. It seems like our enemies have a new suit that can even match the QanT." Everyone glanced at the red mobile suit armed with turrets and a set of heavy cannons. Setsuna never noticed its primary weapon until now. _Does this mean it has been going easy the whole time?_

He had to put the thought aside to keep his attention to the session. "It's got lots of armour, but like all of them it uses traditional fuel. That means maybe you can burn down its strength overtime." Lasse almost pointed at Setsuna.

"The good news is mostly for the Meisters. By the end of the week Feldt will have her mobile suit ready for combat, and the 00QanT will receive its Full Saber pack during the next supply run." He stated. "So you two might want to look it up and practice before the next wave hits us."

"Noted." The two replied at the same time. With a vulture's eye Setsuna noticed Allelujah having a hard time standing straight, despite his best efforts to keep anyone like Setsuna from noticing. The innovator waited until the meeting was over, and ambushed him when he was floating down the hallway and to the gym. "Having some 'problems'?" He shot out.

It didn't take a genius for Allelujah to figure out what he meant, and it wasn't a good one. "Shut up, Setsuna. I'll deal with it."

Feldt was directly behind them when she witnessed Setsuna's weird behaviour. But when she pulled up between them and stole a glance at their trousers she instantly regretted her decision as she's seen things she should have never saw. Thankfully neither of them noticed her peeking, and Allelujah was still trying to defend himself from Setsuna's roasting spree.

"No! Or...will you shut up if I said no?"

"Maybe."

Around the corner behind them, Feldt chuckled.


	9. Chapter 9: The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within

Veda

Beneath the layers of cyber security protocols floated an artificially created being better known as an Innovade with dark purple hair drifted along a hallway surrounded by files of different sizes and importance. A handful of them were covered with a profile picture, while some were attached to a smaller file with relevant info. But that's not what Tieria was interested at the moment.

The process of releasing Anew from her cages made out of firewalls was not done purely out of sympathy. Sometime before the ELS conflict, Tieria had discovered that he wasn't the only one that could regularly save his consciousness within Veda. In fact, every Innovade ever could do the same as long as they wished to do so. This was good news, and bad. Two years ago, a rogue Innovade and Gundam Meister Ribbons Almark led a group of aggressive Innovades and started a series of conflicts. Among the group was Anew, originally tasked to infiltrate Celestial Being.

Compelled to double check the consciousness logs, Tieria headed down a vertical corridor and towards a level 5 database. He paused at a door to have his eye scanned, and was quickly approved to enter. Once he made it in he opened a list of all the known innovades with his mind and started checking them off the list as their names appeared on the title of each files. The more check marks he made, the more fearful he became.

Revive Revival, Hilling Care, Bring Stabity, Devine Nova, and Anew herself. So they've been here this whole time? The must not be released!

To his horror he eventually saw a name he least desired to find. Ribbons Almark. Last saved on 23rd July, 2312.

It won't matter if Veda disallows it, Ribbons must go!

He hastily searched for a delete option within the file, but to no avail. The best he could do was to move the file to another location using a teleportation program in almost any computer of the modern age, but it was a dilemma. If he moved it to a database with lower security, some unwanted visitor might free the rogue Innovade by accident or deliberately. If he moved it up the ladder, it would mean the consciousness of Ribbons Almark might never have a chance to be erased for good.

He had to interface with Veda to fix the seemingly harmless bug before it spreads.

* * *

It was near the end of the day on Helios station, and near the end of Foreman Jasper's working hours. He's a renowned engineer working in Hyperion, famed enough to occasionally getting Jack's attention when something new needs to be invented.

"I'm sure you've already heard of the incidents regarding the unknown machines." Jack stated.

"What do you need me to do, sir?"

His question was answered when a USB was tossed to him. "This should answer all your questions. If it doesn't, go to Wilhelm. He knows about these guys the most."

Inside the USB were duplicates of every unknown enemy sightings recorded. Every detail of those encounters were nicely organized. Even the traits of certain types of enemies were analysed and placed into the portable drive. In his perspective, this was the most detailed report to refer to. At last, it instructed everyone who had authorization to read it to prepare themselves to have to take part in the operation to counter the new threat, whether it's fighting on the frontline or working vampire hours in the R&D department building new weapons and loaders.

It also indicated that Wilhelm's personal loader was to be mass-produced, except its weapon slots were replaced by hardpoints to mount equipment according to the pilots' preference. A list of co-workers he'd need to work with immediately struck Jasper's mind. Not everyone was his friend, but he had learned to deal with most types of people during his career. It included a handful of both Hyperion and non-Hyperion engineers and technicians.

 _Time to do some wetwork before I start._

* * *

Twenty three, twenty four, twenty five.

Feldt ran a headcount on her radar upon hearing the alarming buzz of enemy contact. Her opponents were mostly the new yellow mobile suits Celestial Being has recently encountered, and the new models were also present. She never got the chance to count them. The five leading mobile suits were already firing despite being outside effective range. Unfortunately for Feldt, their unseen precision made their attacks no less deadly than point blank shots.

She returned fire almost instantly like she did in her countless times of training. Her first mistake. Pausing at a nearby asteroid, she took aim again and finally scored a hit after three or four shots. But not only did her enemy almost gracefully evaded the first burst, the shot only grazed its hip and barely did any damage. Feldt didn't quit, but every second she was getting more and more frustrated as she missed more than half of her shots. Apparently the pressure of fighting nearly impossible odds did not have a good effect on her.

"Come on, just hit already!" She did occasionally scratch her opponents' armour a few times, but she knew well that was far from enough. Out of both frustration and rational decision making she withdrew her GN rifle and went close quarters with the leading mobile suit, clashing her beam saber with its anti-beam coated shield. She quickly ignited another saber and was able to lodge it into the stomach section of the yellow mobile suit only a few yards away from her. Afraid of getting caught in the doomed machine's explosion, she kicked what's left of the mobile suit to an asteroid below her. It didn't get very far, and exploded the moment it made contact with the asteroid.

Nadleeh's cockpit was pounded by the debris of various size. Her shield was heavily dented, and her camera was temporarily blinded. Unfortunately for her, she was pinned on a second asteroid by the time the dust and debris cleared up. She ended up having to fight hand to hand with her opponent, who was almost twice as heavy as the Nadleeh. At that moment, she thought she might actually die.

"The Trans-Am system is useful when you might get killed or when you're in a major disadvantage." She suddenly remembered a line from Setsuna himself.

 _Well bite me if I'm not about to get killed._ She thought as she voice-commanded Nadleeh to activate the Trans-Am. Soon she was able to overpower the yellow and red mobile suit and drew a cross on it with the beam sabers. Without staying to observe the fate of her opponent, she sped upwards, then came crashing into a manned red mobile suit with one of her beam sabers stowed away and her other used as a spear. The cockpit was instantly pierced, leaving the mobile suit motionless as it drifted to its destruction. As it exploded Feldt took aim at a closing loader with guns blazing. She fired a single shot towards its right chest, rendering it practically lifeless.

With no means of deactivating the Trans-Am system despite it being no longer necessary for the moment, Feldt stole a glance at a newly included timer located at the bottom right corner of the HUD. She had no more than two and a half minute left before the shutdown sequence goes off and gets her killed, and the best she could do was to keep flying as erratic as she could while still shooting and maiming the rest of her opponents.

However she forgot one fatal flaw about the seemingly invincible system, and she learned it the hard way when the left leg was cut off by a loader that snuck around her. When she finally regained situational awareness, the Nadleeh was rendered to a damaged-beyond-repair state.

Ultimately it was Veda itself that determined Nadleeh was no longer capable of combat, and ended the training session.

She left the cockpit of Harute II, where she usually spends most of her time to hone her skills in piloting a Gundam. Unlike her usual self, she disappeared from the training ground speechless, other than saying she needed a drink to Marie, who had been training her for almost months.

"I don't think it's really fine to let her walk away like that, to be honest." Allelujah interrupted Marie's thoughts from fifteen feet above, where he was finally allowed to go ahead and repaint a small section of his mobile suit.

"I would've said the same, if she wasn't dating Setsuna." She replied.

"What does that do?" Allelujah asked curiously.

"There are just some things she has to understand by herself. We can lecture her for a full day and she still wouldn't get anything. And that is how to survive." Marie changed to a more serious tone.

"Right. There's hardly anyone that knows it better than him."


	10. Chapter 10: Gundam Archer

Gundam Archer

10000 km from Pandora

Inside Ptolemy's hangar, a crew member waved his right arm with a long glow stick in his palm, while his other arm directed the cargo towards the crowd of idle mobile suits. He remained silent as opposed to yelling instructions to the Haros operating the linear crane, as even within the silent space, the hangar was quite the noise generator. At this moment the Ahriman was under maintenance, and with the new mobile suit rolling in, it made the Haros much busier than before.

Once the red mobile suit was parked and the brakes were on, he turned his attention to the weapons that followed. Inside the containers were a pair of shortened beam rifles That resembled a pair of crossbows. It also included a pair of beam tonfas, which have never been used by the group before. Both weapons were promptly attached to the new mobile suit's hardpoints once they came to a halt.

"What a hectic day." Ian commented as a cluster of Haros detached from their Karels and came at him.

Meanwhile, in a small gym next to the mess hall was a person who was working her butts off hours before anyone would even consider waking up, almost literally. Beside that person a piece of towel was getting drenched in sweat overtime, so much it could be used as a stink bomb if she carried on working out and wiping off her sweat with it.

It was highly unusual for her to get down to intense physical activity, especially at a time as early as this. She was known for being a tech expert rather than a hardcore bodybuilder or a Tough Mudder participant. What makes things more ironic was that not far away from where she was, a young man was fast asleep in the mess hall next door, letting out a distinct pattern of snores and muffled words that made no sense.

And HE was supposed to be the one training in daybreak hours, according to his role in the organization.

After finally nailing some 200 squats, she was finally tired of hearing the noise of snoring and almost dragged the person off the bench, with only her lack of energy stopping her from injuring him. Instead she collapsed next to the person and caught her breath before focusing all her energy on her fist and slammed it on the young man's hip.

His expression didn't change. Not a bit.

Feldt desperately repeated it five times over before collapsing on the bench again. She couldn't help but pant in hopelessness as the young man she looked up to was snoring even louder than he was ten seconds ago. Out of the blue a evil idea emerged from her imagination. The next thing she knew, her comm device was laid out on the table and recording his snoring, while she was snickering right next to it.

His snoring is so funny.

But eventually her laughing gave her away. The young man opened his eyes, only to find Feldt changing from holding her laughs to emitting an angry glare, and it was scary enough to make his heart skip a beat. "What...what's wrong?" He managed to ask.

"What's wrong? What are you doing here?" She asked.

"What are you doing here?" Setsuna looked at the digital clock on the wall next to the holographic TV. Like a typical student that dozed off in boring classes, he was clueless about what was happening(although statistics stated that an unbalanced shock or panic would change the situation).

"Working out, obviously! How come you're not sleeping in your room?" Feldt snapped.

"Someone was also 'working out' last night…" Setsuna even exaggerated the apostrophe. Hearing that answer almost made Feldt slam her face on the table between laughter and tears. "Right, Allelujah?!" He bolted upright and shouted at another young man in black as he entered the verbal battleground.

"Sorry, what?" The confused Allelujah asked, not knowing his part of ruining all his neighbours' sleep.

"Do not try to play dumb with me, Allelujah Haptism." Even though he wasn't planning on hurting anyone, his face still looked like he just met Ail-al Saachez all over again. "The hell were you doing last night?"

As he expected, Allelujah delivered the most simple lie to him, completely oblivious that he's in huge trouble. "I was sleeping, sleeping and sleeping. Why?"

"Either you say it, or I'll yell it out so loud even Earth can hear me."All of a sudden Setsuna deepened his voice as if a global scale crisis was unfolding. Meanwhile Feldt had already put two and two together and unknown to them, the other two Meisters were on their way upon hearing the commotion. At this point, Allelujah couldn't help by pull off a facepalm, given how hopeless his situation was.

"Alright. I'll make sure a soundproof the walls before I do anything again. You guys satisfied now?" He reluctantly promised.

There was an eerie silence as the chatting stopped, and it was a staring game between Allelujah and Setsuna. Feldt was constantly shifting her eyeballs on the two, waiting for one to lose his patience. No one made a move, even when Marie and Lyle entered from the mess hall's entrance.

They were as confused as Allelujah was in the standoff. Only until Ian came down from his shift as well did everyone let their guard down by a few notches. "The food isn't going to move itself, guys!" He yawned as he grabbed a covered tray off the table connected to the kitchen. Everyone's eyes rotated towards each others', before finally moving to help themselves.

Eventually the daily lives of the crew of Ptolemaios resumed almost like the second half of a football game. There wasn't a sign of the previous banter anywhere in the room. If you walked in right now, you'd think it was just another typical day of standing by and perhaps hearing space debris warnings.

But Murphy's law applies everywhere, including deep space and the crew's hours to come. Little does the crew know, their newest and supposingly the finest mobile suit after 00 QanT will be soon thoroughly tested.


	11. Chapter 11: Blitzkrieg!

Author note to the person spamming messages in my review section: I understand that by some means you have been taken some rights which I don't know what it is. If you wish to seek help you are free to contact me through private messaging or leaving a clear review. If any readers can interpret this person's message(it is the most recent review of this story), please do offer assistance if possible. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

* * *

Blitzkrieg!

CBS-74 Ptolemaios

"Bogey. Bogey. Bogey. Bogey." Milenia's fist slammed onto the alarm reset after it finally got her attention moments after a dozen unknowns were detected. An attack siren followed, and soon enough four mobile suit pilots in distinct flight suits got into their machines within the minute. Harute II and Ahriman were heading out first to investigate and destroy enemies if necessary, while the 00 QanT and Zabanya, now with eight of its fourteen bit sets restored, hung back to guard the ship.

The pair of transformable mobile suits made a sharp right once they were clear of their mothership and formed up with each other. "Pull up by 20 degrees." Allelujah ordered after checking his sensors. Marie complied while remaining silent. She had to monitor her sensors for additional threats, seeing that this was their enemies' preferred tactic.

Less than ten minutes had passed since Ptolemy initially detected the intruders. The pair of super soldiers have reached the interception point relayed by their mothership, but the only thing with them were a pack of lifeless asteroids. "Harute to Ptolemy. There's nothing but asteroids out here. Please advise."

"Say again Harute." Lasse replied nervously. Both pilots got suspicious.

"Nothing but asteroids, captain." Allelujah repeated.

"Transform and arm your weapons." The captain did his best not to shout at the microphone. "There aren't supposed to be any asteroids in this sector!"

The next thing they knew, one of the asteroids next to the pair erupted into a ball of dust, followed by Marie's frantic screaming after being jumped and vanishing in the cloud of dust. Allelujah raised his scissor rifles and pointed them towards where Marie was at, but all he saw was two pairs of painted mechanical claws retracting into the smokescreen, and all he heard was a frightening screech of metal and bursts of screams, and finally his worst nightmare: he could no longer reach the Ahriman.

"Is the Ahriman still on your scope?" Allelujah exclaimed. What followed was a inaudible response and what seemed to be sounds of intense fighting and metal clashing.

"Ptolemy. Do you copy?" There were still no results.

Out of desperation Allelujah went back to flight mode and submerged into the clouds, while swinging left and right in hope of picking up any trace of his partner. He could not go fast as he usually did, fearing that he might miss some telltale signs of any mobile suit presence. There was little out here, save the smoke and asteroids of different sizes.

Ultimately, Allelujah decided to place his gambit on Harute's FLIR sensor, or forward looking infrared. The forward screens of his suit turned into blues and greens almost instantly, and as they did he resumed his movement and navigated within the asteroid field, still in search of Marie.

A minute has passed and still no red has appeared on his screen. Allelujah was about to transform again when an unnatural shape at the corner of his eyesight caught his attention. He quickly scanned it, and to his horror he recognized the machine's shape as his partner's captor, with all four of its claws retracted and a mobile suit he presumed as a Gundam unit entering its belly. But before he could take action, he was jumped by an explosion from behind. It shook his machine but he kept his nerve.

He quickly rotated the Harute and aimed his scissor rifle at his foe, but was instead hit on the right forearm. He raised his other arm to fire back and managed to put dents on his opponent, while moving back to gain distance and cut his chances of being executed up close. He was about to release his scissor bits when a series of proximity fused explosives blew up in all directions, followed by a second attack that practically paralyzed his mobile suit.

At last he bought himself precious time to move out of the clouds by directing the scissor bits to slash his opponent at every weak spot he could find, through guessing or actually see them through his screen. He was in a world of trouble, with his faithful partner gone MIA and the fate of his mothership unknown.

"Ptolemaios, this is Harute II. Does anyone copy?" He asked anxiously as he drifted back in the direction he was launched from.

He had to wait for seconds in silence before he finally got a response. "Allelujah is that you? Glad you're still alive. We've taken heavy losses and we have to pull out now! Return to the ship immediately!" Captain Lasse answered.

"Is the Harute damaged?"

"Possible. I got hit a few times." Allelujah replied worriedly.

"Copy that. We'll prep for an emergency docking." Lasse paused for another few seconds. "You better make it back with the suit. We suffered from an ambush while you're gone. 00 QanT's drive is hit and Zabanya got hijacked. The ship has some serious holes on it too."

Allelujah couldn't believe his ears. The very strategy of shock and awe they used in most armed interventions were not used against them in some of the most effective way possible. To make matters worse, this time they could not strike back by any means until proper support reaches them, if there was one.

He'll have to digest all of that later, for Lasse has a point. If his machine really is the only surviving one, he must keep it steady and intact until he lands on that net the hangar crew stretches out whenever a rough docking was about to happen.

* * *

It was a long missed peace on Earth. No more conflict inside or outside Earth or its orbit. No more shadow boxing of one faction against another, no more old hate regarding race or identity, no more reason to pick up weapons and hurt others.

The same goes for the Lunar space station Celestial Being, but it was far more hectic than usual. In the shipyard warships strictly used for self-defense and protection were being replace due to recent battles against the ELS. And in the war room, a heated debate was taking place. Whether Celestial Being would be accepted as a legitimate group was in question. Little did those people debating knew that their decision could affect countless lives.


End file.
